New toilet options--worth it or not?

[Genny Li]

So I'm going to be replacing four clogging-prone toilets as I refresh the bathrooms, the first one being over Christmas because one student is leaving after finals and my own kid is actually moving into that room.

I've had good luck with Glacier Bay basic toilets in the past.  I also know I don't want a skirted toilet because you have to disassemble the toilet or lift it to get to the stupid water line at back. >:(

However, I have a question about the new mechanisms that are on the market that replace the old flappers.  They're found mostly on the push-button dual-flush toilets.  These are advertised as being more reliable, more durable, and less prone to leak.  I find in my own house that they're a bit more finicky (bad for the impatient, you really have to hold down the button for two solid seconds--I have some fancy-pants American Standard ones with the skirts and the ultralow flush and the nanofinish and all that jazz), but I haven't had enough experience with them to evaluate the claims for increased reliability and decreased leakage.  I changed my first flapper kit when I was a young teenager without even thinking about it, but I'm not sure how I'd change these fancy things. 

How expensive are they when they break? 

Do you need parts specific to that manufacturer, or can you get a standard kit like with the flappers? 

How long to they take to change out, and it is something that's super easy like the flapper, or is it hard? 

What is really the best option for a rental?  

This is what I'm currently planning on buying, unless the new flush mechanisms really are that great:  https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gl... 

Water costs are not a really factor here, BTW. A lot of the cost of water is just the base cost--$12.40 to read the meter and $21.29 for base sewer cost for 0-4,000 gallons.  Assuming we are over the 4,000 gallons, every 1,000 gallons costs $7.01.  With the wildly optimistic figure of a .92 gal average ultra low flow flush over the current 1.6 gal low flow as a baseline and 5 flushes per toilet per day with an inaccurate 365 days of occupancy, that's a "staggering" $8.70 saved per year per toilet for an ultra low flow toilet. With a more realistic alternative of 1.28 for the low flow, that drops to $4.60 per year.  At an even more realistic average of 1.1 per flush for the ultra low flow, we are at $2.30 per toilet per year.  I'm adding these figures because there are parts of the country where water prices are high and some people don't believe me when I say I don't care about ultra low flush for these properties.